Hello all,
I got a beautiful piece....about 3 yards or so...of silk-like fabric from our wonderful local thrift store. The selvage has a rather spectacular border, distinct, with vibrant colors throughout. I have never used a border print fabric, but would like to use this for a dress or tunic. I am somewhat stumped as to the pattern to use and would appreciate any and all suggestions.
Also, if you know of any tutorials that might be helpful or any books, websites and such that would offer guidance, I would appreciate knowing about them also.
Thanks so much, and sew on,
Cathy

Cathy, actually there are many patterns that will work for border prints but sometimes you have to do a bit of imagining. They don't have to have square edges. Here is a dress I sewed using a border print Barcelona dress. I've seen borders used vertically on tunics as well.

I switched things up on Vogue OOP Issey Miyake 1328
by running the bottom border of a border print across the back yoke and sleeve backs.
It took very little fiddling to be able to cut one continuous piece to run wrist to wrist for the tunic pictured on the right of the pattern envelope.

And, I slightly modifiedVogue OOP Issey Miyake 1476
to run a border print with the bottom border running down the center fronts. Made this one in a light fabric for a friend's first trip to the Mexican Riveria. She used it as a pool coverup and for lounging.

Marcy Tilton's V8439 jacket is in the same spirit as 1476 but tremendously streamlined by comparison. It would be a fun pattern for manipulating a border print.

I've had border prints wait for years to whisper their intended purpose. If I had a short length on hand right now, I might be inclined to be a bit wild with it and play with Marcy Tilton's V8954 pieced vest. -- Edited on 3/20/14 2:49 PM --

------I have no idea what Apple thought I was saying so be a Peach and credit anything bizarre to auto correct.

If you have the patience for matching, you can use a dress pattern with a gored skirt.

Even 6 gores could work out - 8 would be better. And I've seen some where they turn the print upside down for the bodice, too.

A basic sheath dress could work also.

I saw something recently (on a sewing blog?) that was interesting - a half circle skirt on a dress where the border print sort of wrapped up and around - the "empty" part of it crossing the waist at the side seam. But it was one of those really wide prints that looks like "branches" reaching up/down from one edge. I'm not sure it would have worked w/ a sari print, for example.

If you're brave, you might actually consider a circle skirt! Using a border print will force the "stripe" to make an interesting swoopy arc up from the hemline. This blog post shows how to do it, and here's an image from a vintage pattern:

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